Hi All! I just have to start one of these so I can show off my success and leave room for some constructive critisism on my failures for my trapping this year. There seems to be some great guys and gals on this site and some very hardcore knowledgable trappers. I can only hope one day to learn as much as some of you have forgotten. (smile) Right now I am only trapping on one quarter of farmland. (1/2 mile x 1/2 mile) My grandma owns it now, but it is where my great grandparents homesteaded back in the 1930's. It would be called forest fringe area I guess. There is some crown forest a few miles west of it, and about 8 miles east of it. I have really been after wolves the past few years. I have never caught one yet. We are not in prime wolf area. But every few years a pack seems to move in around grandma's and tries to make it part of their territory. This is one of those years. The last couple times between ranchers shooting them and government hired trappers, they seem to thin them out. I am hoping I have the jump on both of those competitors this year. I have had them come through twice. A pack of 6 wolves. Looked like three adults and three smaller ones. The first time they took down a deer. It had snowed so I didnt know where exactly to set, but put out a few power snares and some lure near the kill site. The second time they came through very close to the same place, and chased the two or three moose that were on our land out the south side accross a small lake.You could see where the moose were slippng and sliding on the ice at a full trot. That time I set all their trails in and out and put out a major bait pile consisting of most of a roadkill moose,two deer and a few coyote carcasses. I left the bait alone for over a week, but had some power snares around the parimeter. I also had some sets near the old yard. So far I have caught 5 coyotes, and it looks like I havent even put a dent in the local population. They are coming to the bait, but not hard. They seem nervous of it yet. There are a few eating on it, but maybe they are nervous of the wolves around. One of my biggest questions is why did the wolves come through about 10 days apart twice, and now it has been three weeks and no wolves. One thing I did learn the previous two years is not to pull up stakes to quickly. Patients could pay off. On this same quarter of land, we also have beaver, otter, mink, weasel, rats, fisher and racoons. There would be lynx in the crown forest and pasture, but I doubt we would see any on our land. I have to use this as my little trapping block until I can get a real one someday. Maybe in my retirement. LOL. Anyway, sorry for the long winded post. Here are some pics and some video's. Hope to have more with detail later.

Two of my boys with their first weasel. A big one too!

And a video or two. There are other trapping videos on my channel. But I will try post this years on here as I can.

That weasel is huge, mustbe a longtail. Don't set up too close to the bait pile, let the wolves come in and feed for a couple visits then set on their trails further out from the bait pile. The wolves visit every ten days or so because they are traveling their area searching for food, they will be back.

Woo hoo! Awesome that the kids are into it, can't wait until mine is coming out!

Ya it is great to get them out. They kinda drag their feet a bit till you get out there and actually have some success. (At least my kids do) Then they get right excited, almost as much as their dad. (smile) Our oldest is 14 years old, but has no intrest in it. I may have overloaded him with hunting and trapping when he was younger.

Went out tonight after work. Checked the line in the dark. It was a good night. The only thing I messed up on was missing a mink by not taking my safety catches off a connibear. He will be educated at that set now. Darn.We got one nice coyote and one smaller decent one. One smart beaver that has been tripping my snares for three checks now. Once he even broke out of one somehow. My partner also got three beavers yesterday on his sets. Two monsters and one widdo guy. Still no wolves. I almost feel like I do more harm then good some nights while checking. It could be the night they are going to show up and then I am out there tramping around with a flashlight. But, rules is rules, and its likely the right thing to do.

Well, another Saturday. One more real nice coyote and one big beaver that had been teasing us for a couple weeks and leaving us scratching our heads. My partner also caught two more small beaver. A good day to be outdoors for sure, the sun even had some warmth in sheltered area's in the bush. We had a bit of snow overnight that made it hard to read the tracks, but it looks like I may have had a wolf at my bait site, or darn close. Hopefully he comes back with some friends next time. I am also the proud new owner of a 1985 Yamaha 340 Enticer long track. I will try post pics later. This is a major upgrade for me, as my other machines are 1974 Polaris'. One Custom 2 530 and one Electra 440. They are great machines also, but getting a bit frail for full time use.

Well, there has been a couple line checks since my last post, but nothing is happening. I have seen coyotes paired up running around elsewhere. Seeing alot of coyote urine with blood, I take it they are starting to mate. Still no wolves. It has been 5 weeks now with no sign of them being back through. I am not giving up just yet, but I am starting to worry that maybe a radical rancher put out some "feed" for them. I am hoping not, but with the trouble they had a few years ago,alot of calves went missing in a short time frame...... you just never know what means they will resort to sometimes. We rebaited with some real fresh bloody butcher scraps and the ravens are sure lovin it. On wednesday, something got caught in my 160 belisle, set for fisher, pulled the brace stakes right out of the ground and bent the jaws and got out. It was in a cubby set with the trap set vertical, so it would have really had to reach. Or maybe it got it on the nose? What the heck would do that? A real dumb coyote maybe? I cant see a lynx pulling out of one of those, but maybe. Second time out, there was a squirrel in the 160 and it was almost all eaten. Fisher tracks all over the place. Geez louise. Other then that, no action. I did brush up my coyotes and sold them on Saturday. I kind of wanted to get a real big pile of fur and take it all in at once, but had good use for the coin, and I may not get many now that are nice and prime. Waiting till spring to do up all the beaver. Here are some pics for comments, good or bad. (smile)

Nice work, patience on the wolves, they are jus running their territory. I am used to 14 days for them to return. Seems the average for where i am at. I got two more urine sets out today. My last one they hit, but iron was 8 inches under. Seems i am always fighting the wind out there. When it comes to wolf sets. Saw alot scat out there, but nothing for tracks really windy out in them flats, they are really cautious when around cover. At least for me. IMO

Thanks Yukon. When I hit 3 and 4 weeks with no wolves. I thought maybe I missed them and would get them on the next round. But now they should have been through 2 or 3 times. I have one spot I can move to, but I hate to give up to early. I will stick it out a while yet just in case.

Ok guys and gals. I dont have much to show. We are at 12 coyotes total now. 10 on our one quarter of land. The wolves came through again, but totally ignored the bait. They went about 200 yds south of it and just kept on going. No intrest at all by the look of it. Coyotes are getting pretty wooly, so I pulled most of my snares exept a few choice spots. I moved to a new spot for wolves closer to home. Started a bait and went back three days later to check and freshen it up. There had already been 2 wolves at it. I dumped off another deer and went out today. I figure 6 or 7 wolves were there, totally demolished the bait, nothing left. So I set the heck out of it with Mb750's and power snares. This spot looks much more promising. I will keep you posted. Have to check within three days, so Thurs. it is. Take care, hope you all are having a great season.

Well fellow trappers. I am depressed tonight. I caught one coyote, but I also caught and lost my first wolf in a snare. I dont know what went wrong for sure. Likely caught him to far back and he managed to eventually chew out. We have had unseasonally warm weather this week once again, so I am guessing they dont go down as quick as in the real cold weather. It was a parmiter set on a trail, out of sight from the bait pile.I am hoping it didnt spook the whole pack off. Any thoughts or suggestions? I am running a combonation of wolfer Mb750's, Ram Power snares and Alberta Triggered power snares. I have nothing but praise for the Alberta power snares. It sure dropped the coyotes with very little struggle. I dont think I had one chew out,or hardly so much as a frayed cable. But those were coyotes. They would wrap up and go down quick. I was tying about 5-6feet up with good #9 wire. The wire and swivel held real well,the cable wasnt kinked up. Just a chew out. This wolf made one and a half wraps around the tree and ended up real low on the last wrap. When I saw that "circle of death" in the snow around the tree but no wolf I was just sick. Any words of advise? I wont give up, but sure feel like it tonight.

Thanks for the encouragment guys and gals. Well, I have so many questions. Most of which cannot be answered. I now have someone else checking my traps. LOL. Somebody on a fancy tracked 4 wheeler was out and kinda snuck around on foot and checked a couple of my sets. Luckily there was nothing to take. The wolves dont seem to want to come back near my bait site. Its been two weeks now, and a group of three wolves came through. They are following a simaler pattern but slightly different trails this time through the area. The three that came through all had fairly small tracks. I am 90% sure it is a different group of wolves, or three split off from the others. Possibly last years pups touring on their own a bit? Is this possible? Do they split up sometimes when mating? And the big male that was making urine posts out of every second tree was no where to be seen. Just these three smaller wolves. The group that hit the bait last time had big heavy looking tracks. At least two of them were real nice and big. The others were average size. The three that came through this time were all on the smaller size in my mind. Has anyone seen this before? Or am I dreaming? I made some trail sets trying to be as crafty as possible using tight turns in between heavy cover. What am I doing wrong? This is two packs of wolves I have been after this year, and even the mentally challenged ones like these are beating me. I say this because they totally demolished the bait on their first visit, that was within a week of putting it out. No sign of being shy of scent or anything. Just came in and ripped it to bits. There was nothing left but hair and the odd bone chunk. The biggest tracked wolf was urinating on every little snag and stump in the area. They even bedded down a couple hundred yds away. They owned the place. Now, nothing but ravens, eagles and coyotes touching it. Poor poor trappin moose.